From data to victory: the best young statisticians announced!

The ninth season of the Statistics Competition ends

In an inspiring and dynamic atmosphere, the awards ceremony for the best teams of the ninth season of the Statistics Competition was held, which gathers a large number of high school students from all over Croatia year after year. This school year, 439 teams, with more than 1 100 students and mentors from as many as 84 schools, joined the competition, which confirms the growing interest of young people in data analysis and the development of statistical literacy.
 
After the introductory speech by Lidija Brković, on behalf of the organiser, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, and by Momir Karin, on behalf of the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth and as the sponsor of the competition, the participants had the opportunity to warm up their analytical thinking at a panel discussion  ''Only one click to information - but is it accurate?''. In a time when information travels faster than ever, and artificial intelligence ''communicates'' more and more convincingly, panellists Jelena Gusić Munđar (Faculty of Organization and Informatics), Lidija Brković (Croatian Bureau of Statistics), Toni Milun, Marko Grdešić (Faculty of Political Science) and Marko Matijević (Srednja.hr) opened up a key dilemma: how to distinguish between what is accurate and what just sounds convincing? The discussion connected statistics, the media, science and technology, emphasising the importance of understanding the source, context and method of interpretation of data. One message that particularly resonated with the audience was simple but powerful: data can be accurate, but the conclusion can be wrong. This thought sums up the challenge facing the modern society - it is not enough to just have data, but it is also important to understand them.
 
The moment everyone had been eagerly awaiting followed - the announcement of the best teams. The third place in category B (1st and 2nd grades) was won by the MEDIJAN26 team from Grammar and Vocational School Juraj Dobrila Pazin, the second place by the SKUHANI team from the First Grammar School Zagreb, while the first place went to the PRAČKA team from the Grammar School Josip Slavenski Čakovec. Students from Čakovec definitely proved that they are crushing statistics, as they also won the third place in category A (3rd and 4th grades), namely the team POMALEM. The second place was won by students from the POZITIVK3 team from the Secondary School of Economics Mijo Mirković Rijeka, while the first place went to the ALFAOMEGA team from Electromechanical School Varaždin.
 
The public also had its say - and a loud one at that. More than 134 thousand votes decided the public choice awards: in category B, the winning team was DEKAHIDRAT from the Technical School Ruđer Bošković, while in category A, it was the team DIIVEE from the School of Natural Science from Split.
 
However, the story does not end here. The best teams are already preparing for the European "stage", where they will compete with peers from 21 countries and try to prove once again that they know how to not only analyse data, but also tell the story behind them. The awards ceremony ended in a relaxed gathering of participants, with the organisers' message that the goal of the competition is much more than achieving results - it is to develop knowledge, encourage curiosity and empower young people to better understand the world around them through data. Because after all, this is not just a competition about numbers. It is about curiosity, about questions and about that one click after which we can assess what is truly accurate.
 
 
 
 

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